Hood Heat

[zdefonte]

I always wipe the hood every day after work due to bird poop (I guess my parking spot at work is in the path of some birds during their daily commute ); then one day, I noticed that the hood does not get very hot at all after a few miles of driving. It only gets hot on two spots (towards the front on both sides) and not the entire hood as one might expect. (BTW, year-round weather here is around 90 degrees). Did anyone notice this as well?

[Eikon]

Usually the greatest amount of heat put off into the engine bay is from the exhaust manifold runners. Those are on the front of the engine. They take the exhaust gasses (which are very very hot) out of the engine and down underneath to the exhaust pipes, through the cat. converters and muffler and out the exhaust tip.

So, despite the heat shield they put over the exhaust manifold, that's still the greatest heat source. That heat will head up to the hood and warm it up. The hood does have some bracing that may capture some of the heat and distribute. So most likely the parts to either side of the center bracing will get the hottest. Probably two spots... with the passenger side of the hood being the hotter of the two spots.